


I See The Shadows On My Face

by OMGitsgreen



Series: Stories of CHB [7]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Fluff and Angst, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, everything in good measure
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-29
Updated: 2016-11-29
Packaged: 2018-09-02 23:59:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,724
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8688676
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OMGitsgreen/pseuds/OMGitsgreen
Summary: “You mean I don’t look like an Eldritch Horror anymore?” Nico asked as he gave Will a pointed look.
“No, you are back to Eldritch Dreamboat,” Will promised him and Nico would have elbowed him if he had the strength. 
After Nico overexerts himself, he finds himself foundering in a power that never ceases to terrify him. Thankfully, Nico isn't alone any longer.





	

**Author's Note:**

> So things I write tend to end up being this peculiar blend of horrifying and fluffy, I don’t really understand how you guys put up with me but you do so thank you all. Enjoy some good old fashion Solangelo hurt/comfort/fluff/Lovecraftian horror shit. 
> 
> As always, guess the reference and you get a cookie!

Some days were worse than other days, Nico was beginning to discover. When he was younger and on his own the days sort of all strung together in a haze, and he hadn’t let himself linger on anything too long or risk coming apart completely. He had thought he had mastered minding the edge, but unfortunately circumstances being what they were had had been shoved head first over the edge and into the abyss.

Power fatigue was dangerous, especially in children of gods so powerful. It made the user reckless, it made the powers nearly uncontrollable, it fed something inside of Nico that Nico didn’t really like. Or rather, all the things that Nico didn’t really like which used to be most things. But now he had things he did like, and was working on the rest. But that didn’t mean that it was all easy. It certainly didn’t.

Nico had been relaxing as some campers worked on building a new cabin. Hephaestus Cabin had been very diligent in producing Jason’s designs, and Nico had to admit he enjoyed the craftsmanship that went into building. Harley, the youngest and most energetic member of Cabin Nine, found Nico lounging and seemingly took it upon himself to bring Nico over to look at the skeleton of the cabin.

“Isn’t it cool Nico?” Harley asked with a wide smile. “I’m designing a paneled window that’s going to open with a latch that—“

“Breathe between sentences,” Nico reminded him quietly, and in return Harley sucked in a breath before continuing to rattle on about window panes and latches and gundam robots.

And it was then that a satyr knocked over something with a wheelbarrow careening down a hill, and that was when one of the beams fell.

Nico didn’t really remember what had happened next, the whole thing was a blur of Nico throwing himself in front of Harley and his fingers touching the beam. The weight he remembered, oh gods the weight, he couldn’t carry it he was going to burst but he couldn’t let Harley die. He was sliding back, he was being clawed down.

Nico ended up a few feet away, the beam laying seemingly harmless on the ground, before Nico fell to his hands and knees.

“Nico!” Harley cried but Nico had the semblance of mind to hold out his hand.

“Don’t. Come. Closer.” Nico forced between his teeth, his hand returning down, his fingers tingling his shirt feeling too dense, the shadows reaching, pulling, filling his veins and making him so cold—

“Someone get Chiron and Will!” Another voice called, but it sounded far away. Nico couldn’t help but begin to press his fingers into the ground. The coldness poured out of him, his breath puffed white as he began to shiver. His shadow spread out thick and horrible, its fingers spidering through his skin muscle blood down to his marrow. Oh gods he hated it but he clenched his eyes shut hard and fast as he tried to hold himself together.

“Nico,” a calm voice called to him, the far away clicking of hooves following it. 

“I want it out,” Nico begged, holding his head in his hands as it skittered and squirmed under his skin, moving against his skull and in his veins, sending his heart pounding in his head, making him flinch and shiver uncontrollably. “Please, oh please, I want it out, get it out of me.”

“Nico that is your power. You cannot be afraid of your powers,” the man tried to soothe, but the calming words did nothing to ease his panic.

“It feels l-like something’s inside of m-me,” Nico shuddered between chattering teeth, his body jerking involuntarily as he ground the heels of his hands to his forehead but it kept twisting and crawling and digging deeper. “I-it’s in me and I want it out!”

“Nico, you have to stop panicking,” the man told him firmly. “If you are scared it will make it worse.”

“Oh gods i-it feels awful,” Nico gasped—gagged, something trying to force its way up bubble up to the surface. “I think I’m going t-to b-be sick.”

“It will all be alright. It will pass, remain calm and breathe through it.”

“But I d-don’t w-want this,” Nico tried to explain desperately, trying to raise his head but his vision was swimming and he had to force his head back down in his hands as everything swayed and it kept digging deeper and crawling and hollowing him out until he could be swallowed whole. “I f-feel them writhing— _writhing_ in my head. The shadows…the shadows will eat me…”

A voice called from the side but Nico had folded up on himself as the light began to undulate against the ground and the shadows tried to burst out from his insides and he had to hold himself together because he felt himself coming apart at the seams. The darkness in his veins was straining him as he continued to nearly convulse with shivers, he was so cold, his skin was numb, the horribleterrible thing inside him was begging to be let out, let us join our brethren in the dark, let us disappear and join them…

A warm hand pressed against his cheek, spilling sunlight and summer into his veins and making his heart go half-time double-time. He managed to crane his neck and saw him—Will, Nico barely managed to think around the crawling and the shuddering and the horribleterrible thing that was making things fuzzy and his vision swim very loudly in his head.

“Hey Nico,” Will said with a warm smile, a smile that could’ve made anyone feel as if they were the most wonderful person in the whole world and there was no one else that Will would’ve liked to meet, even as Nico was sure his face was contorting against his will. “Do you think you can keep anything down?”

“I-I feel n-nauseous,” Nico admitted with a grimace everything turning and his veins erupting from his skin he didn’t find any use in lying. 

“Medicinal gum?” Will offered as he pulled out a pack and Nico would’ve scowled if he could control it. “Anything I can get to help me stabilize you will be worth it.”

Will unwrapped the gum and helped Nico press it to his trembling teeth. It tasted foul, like cough medicine and dirt, but having something to grind his teeth against that wasn’t in his body a strange relief.

“Good, just keep that up as I heal you. Man, Nico, I can’t imagine that’s pleasant. I can feel the darkness under your skin—it’ll feel better soon I promise,” Will promised and Nico didn’t know how but he let Will press his palms to his forearms. Will began to sing gently, softly, like the trailing of light from a window sill:

_I will remember and not be unmindful of Apollo who shoots afar._

_As he goes through the house of Zeus,_

_the gods tremble before him and all spring up from their seats when he draws near,_

_as he bends his bright bow._

Nico felt the terriblehorrible thing recede and run dry. The crawling stopped, the disgusting writhing ceased completely. Nico sucked in a breath he hadn’t even known he had been holding as sweet relief was cooling and comforting where Will was warming and mixing in him. When his shaking ceased until there was nothing but tremors. He immediately felt himself press his forehead against Will’s shoulder, unwilling to look up and see the damage he had done.

“I’m sorry,” Nico croaked, his throat raw and aching, the gum crusted against his teeth and flavorless. But he felt like himself again, or as much of himself as he would dare to scrape together.

“Don’t be sorry, it’s alright,” Will told him as he gently patted his back. “We all have a price to pay for overexerting our powers. I get burned, you get sick.”

“It’s not just being sick and you know it,” Nico said petulantly.

“You’ve just got too much Vitamin Darkness in you,” Will hummed good naturedly. “Nothing some TLC and some elbow grease can’t straighten out with time, though your heroics are always throwing a wrench in my master plan to straighten you out into a fine young man.”

“I’m not even going to acknowledge the joke you want me to make,” Nico muttered with a shaky sigh, breathing in the scent of clean laundry on Will’s shirt, the good and wonderful things that settled on him. 

“Can I take a look at your face?” Will asked and Nico grudgingly moved back and allowed Will to cup his face in his hands and study his features. “Your eyes are back to normal, your veins too. You’re still a little pale, but nothing some rest, some sun, and some ambrosia and nectar won’t fix.”

“You mean I don’t look like an Eldritch Horror anymore?” Nico asked as he gave Will a pointed look.

“No, you are back to Eldritch Dreamboat,” Will promised him and Nico would have elbowed him if he had the strength. Instead he lingered on the wilted grass and the yellow leafed trees around him, unable to contain his shudder, Will gently rested his hand on Nico’s shoulder. “It’s alright, you’re recovering and we all know it. Don’t beat yourself up, you did a good thing.”

“I need to apologize to Chiron,” Nico said as he tried to stand up. Will slung Nico’s arm over his shoulders and wrapped one hand around his hip to steady him.

“With only grass as collateral I’m sure Chiron won’t be too upset,” Will promised him. “Now, Miranda on the other hand, I’m not too sure. But you saved Harley, that’ll count for something.”

“Kick me while I’m down,” Nico grumbled under his breath, feeling Will press a butterfly kiss to his temple before they slowly made their way to the infirmary.

Harley made him a thank you card that he delivered to the infirmary along with the tears in his eyes and the heartfelt gratitude of the kids in his cabin. No one tried to tell him it was okay, and that was good because it really wasn’t. But it was getting better, Nico couldn’t help but think as Will cut him a piece of ambrosia. And that was what mattered.

**Author's Note:**

> Reference to Hymn #3 to Apollo


End file.
